The elevator platform hummed beneath my boots, rattling softly as it hoisted us upwards into the belly of the massive vehicle. Its underbelly was a maze of piping and intricate machinery, groaning and hissing in a constant symphony of activity.

Dipton and I stood on one side of the platform, while Fii stood on the other. My hand rested on the grip of my SMG as I shifted my weight from foot to foot. I stole a glance at Dipton and noticed that he had his hands behind his back and his head tilted as he gazed forward.

In the back of my mind, I still considered the possibility that Dipton was luring me to his base under the pretense of amicable negotiations and was just biding time until they could kill me and steal whatever was on me. But I quickly shook off the thought, scolding myself for being so suspicious. Damn it, I came over to try and make some friends.

My eyes wandered over to Dipton as the elevator rose higher and higher. His mustache twitched and he let out a snicker before turning to me with a wry grin. "What is it?" I asked.

"Oh, it's just that you seem a little on edge," he replied, laughing again. "Don't worry, Connor. You'll see soon enough that we aren't as bad as you think."

"Sorry, it's just that I had a run-in with some bad people not too long ago. They didn't really leave me with good memories of groups." I sighed and looked down at the ground below me, feeling ashamed for doubting Dip's intentions. "Well, let's just say that I'm a little paranoid about this."

Dipton nodded, his expression growing somber. "It's understandable that you'd be on guard," he said, his voice filled with understanding. "Still, I'd advise you to keep an open mind."

The platform settled with a pronounced clunk and we stepped off into what seemed like a cargo hold. The room smelled of oil and steel, a sharp tang that hit my nostrils the moment I set foot on the floor.

The cargo hold was cavernous in size but well-lit by fluorescent bulbs on the ceiling. All manner of equipment, from dismantled engine parts to stacks of boxes piled high against one another, occupied almost every spare corner of the space. The whole room was cluttered and haphazardly organized, but it was surprisingly clean.

On one side, there was a large workbench and several tool cabinets. On the opposite side, a staircase led up to the upper level. There was a door to the right, leading to who knew where.

My eyes darted around, taking in the sight of the place, and it dawned on me that this was just a small fraction of the area of this massive land rover. This place had to be huge, and the idea made me excited for the chance to explore it in full.

"Welcome to the Conestoga, Connor," he said, his voice bouncing off the steel walls. "She's a bit of a hodgepodge, but she's ours."

"Conestoga?" I asked. "Is that her name?"

Dipton nodded. "That's right. She's a mobile home," he explained with a proud grin on his face. "Found her and fixed her up so we can make our way around these parts in relative safety. Of course, there are still some dangers, but we do what we can to keep ourselves secure." Dipton waved a hand over his shoulder, gesturing to the room at large. "This is our home and it's one helluva place to be."

Fii and I followed Dipton towards a corner of the room that looked more like a mechanic's workshop than a storage area. Massive shelves bolted to the walls were laden with an assortment of tools and parts, each meticulously labeled and arranged. In the center, a sprawling workstation spanned the length of the room, covered in blueprints and diagrams pinned under various little parts and gadgets that I'd be hard-pressed to know the function of.

My attention was drawn to a woman sprawled over an engine part that was probably bigger than her, a pair of greasy mechanics gloves poking out from the other side. Her freckled face emerged as she slid out from under the part, a streak of oil smeared across her cheek. Her honey-colored hair was tied back into a messy bun to keep it out of the way.

Wiping her hands on a rag, she stood up, her petite frame dwarfed by the machinery around her.

"This here's Darcey Hamilton," Dipton introduced, his southern drawl pulling the syllables of her name. "Our resident tech whiz."

"Oi, Dip," she called, slipping off her thick mechanics gloves and wiping her hands on her overalls, which were smeared with oil and grime. "Who's the new bloke?"

Dipton walked towards her and said, "Darcey, this here is Connor." He gestured to me with a flourish. "Our newest recruit."

"Oh, a new mate!" Her face brightened as she approached and shook my hand with a firm grip, her hazel eyes peering into mine. "How do."

"Nice to meet you," I replied, smiling as she let go of my hand. "Connor Gallagher."

Darcey flashed me a grin as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked me over. "I see you're armed," she observed, nodding at my SMG and my backup pistol. "That a tactical vest and some boots under all that?"

"Yeah," I said, moving my head to look down at myself. Sure enough, the clothes underneath my jacket and pants had gotten somewhat worn out but they were still serviceable.

Dipton put a hand on Darcey's shoulder. "Don't mind Darcey here," he said with a smirk. "She's just nosy."

Darcey smacked his hand away with an annoyed scowl on her face. "Blimey, Dip," she huffed, glaring at him. "Must you always be so bloody obtuse?" Turning her attention to me, she put her hands on her hips. "So, are you an Offworlder too?"

Offworlder? Is that what they call players here in Nexus? I had to admit it had a nice ring to it and it made me feel less guilty for thinking of them as 'Players'. "I am, actually," I said, nodding to her. "Just recently arrived, in fact."

Darcey nodded, a look of understanding in her eyes. "Fair enough, mate. Well, welcome to Nexus then." She turned to Dipton and added, "Looks like he'll be able to pull his own weight around here."

Dipton walked past me to lean against a table stacked with gears and screws. He crossed his arms as he peered down at Darcey and said, "You know what they say: we only welcome people in the dead of night, after they've been hunted down and survived." He grinned, his mustache twitching.

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"Sure," she replied with a shrug. "Doesn't mean we can't take on strays." She glanced back at me for a moment before looking back at Dipton with a smirk. "Especially those with promising looks."

Dipton returned her smirk and said, "That's enough now, Darcey." He raised an eyebrow and added, "If you're done flirtin' with our new recruit, then there's more important business to attend to."

I was getting a little overwhelmed by their banter but didn't want to say anything. Darcey seemed to enjoy it and Dipton was clearly used to it. After all, the whole thing was in good humor and I didn't want to come off like a wet blanket by butting in.

Fii approached and said, "There is an eighty-eight percent chance that Darcey has stated that Connor will be useful to the group." It paused to focus on Darcey before adding, "Aside from that, the comment about 'promising looks' has a probability of meaning sexual attraction."

Woah, woah, woah! The hell did Fii just say?! I moved between Darcey and Fii, my shoulders tense and my arms raised. "Fii, what the fuck?" I exclaimed.

Fii's camera swiveled towards me and asked, "Was the statement inappropriate?"

"Yeah, a little bit," I said, shooting an annoyed glance at Fii's lens before turning my attention to Darcey and Dipton who were both staring at me in shock. "Sorry about that," I said to them, waving a hand.

Whether or not Darcey acknowledged my apology was unclear as her attention was now focused on Fii.

"Blimey! Did that SCAV just...talk?" she asked, looking from me to Fii and back again. Her gaze was rapt, her fascination evident.

"Uh..yeah," I replied, unable to suppress a smile as Darcey's jaw dropped in shock and her eyes widened as saucers. "Its name is Fii."

"It's got a name too?!" Darcey gasped, walking past me to inspect Fii. "Wow, how did you manage to find this precious thing, mate?" she asked, her voice brimming with awe. She reached out to stroke Fii's metal frame only to recoil when the robot's camera swiveled and its lens zoomed in on her face.

"Oh!" she yelped. "Didn't think it was that sharp." Her eyes lit up with a childlike glee as she slowly reached out to Fii again. "Wow, a mechanical spider bot." Fii's chassis didn't even twitch as Darcey patted its shell before turning to me with a wide grin on her face. "Does it have any combat applications?"

Fii's camera lens swiveled to focus on me for a moment before turning back to Darcey. "Affirmative," it replied. "Fii is able to function as a combat support unit."

Darcey squealed as she put her hands on her cheeks, her eyes practically sparkling with excitement. "It's amazing!" she gushed as she took a few steps back from Fii to regard it with a look of utter wonderment on her face. "You fixed this up yourself, didn't you, mate?" she asked, turning to look at me.

"That's right," I replied, smiling at her enthusiasm. "I found it in a Server and a quest popped up to fix it."

"Amazing!" she repeated before her expression grew more contemplative. "So, do you command it to do things for you? Or do you just let it walk around on its own?" she asked, walking around Fii as if it were an exhibit in a museum.

"Ah, I can tell you're gonna like the 'Fii's got a mind of its own' spiel," I replied with a chuckle, folding my arms over my chest and leaning back against Fii. "Honestly though, Fii does most of its own stuff but it will listen to me when necessary."

"Righto," she said as she circled around Fii again. "So, this Fii is pretty smart then?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. "Has it been working well for you so far?"

I nodded. "So far, Fii has been invaluable."

Darcey grinned, looking like she was ready to explode from the thrill of learning about something new. "Brilliant!" she exclaimed as she clapped her hands together. "Just brilliant!" A mischievous glint shone in her eyes as she turned to look at Fii's camera. "You know what else is brilliant?" she asked, her grin only widening as Fii's camera swiveled to focus on her.

"I have no relevant information on your inquiry, but I will inquire: What is brilliant?" Fii replied.

"That!" Darcey replied, pointing at Fii with a giddy laugh. "That's brilliant!"

Dipton barked out a laugh from where he stood behind Darcey. "You're really something, Darcey," he said, shaking his head with a smirk. "Never seen anyone look so tickled about a robot."

Darcey turned to look at him with a frown on her face. "Oh shush," she said in a tone that made it clear she was not in the mood to hear him tease her. "You don't understand!" She turned back to Fii, her enthusiasm bubbling over again as she motioned to it with her hands. "I can build simple robots and command them with my power, but there's no way any of them would ever respond to me the way your SCAV does," she explained, her voice dripping with admiration as she regarded Fii. "This has sparks of AGI!" she declared before turning back to Dipton and me. "It's just brilliant!"

I didn't really understand what Darcey meant by that but I was willing to humor her. "What does AGI mean?" I asked, my head tilting slightly to the side as I regarded her. "Is that important?"

"Well, you see," she said, motioning to Fii with her hand again as if she was about to reveal something awe-inspiring. "AGI: Artificial General Intelligence. It means that you have an AI system that is so advanced and so complex that it can think and learn on its own."

"Ah, but doesn't all SCAVs have something like that?" I asked. "I mean...they go around collecting things and they know how to fight."

Darcey shook her head and sighed. "No, mate," she said, turning to me with a serious expression on her face. "They're just doing what they're told to do by the Assemblers," she explained, waving her hand around to motion at the world around us. "SCAVs are just drones."

I cocked my head to the side and let out a chuckle. "Wait...are you telling me that SCAVs aren't really self-aware?" I asked, taken aback by what she was implying. "That doesn't sound right."

"It's true, mate," she said, giving me a serious nod. "They're just machines with orders. If you encounter them often enough, you'll start to realize it."

Huh, okay then...this is some crazy stuff. But, it did make sense in a way. I did notice patterns in their activity during the times I observed them.

She pointed at Fii again and continued, "But this one here is different! It has a personality! It's self-aware! It has to be!" she insisted, a feverish gleam in her eyes as she regarded Fii with a look of wonderment. "That's what I mean by AGI!"

"Are you sure, though?" I asked, scratching my beard in thought. "I mean, Fii's obviously smart but it hasn't really shown a lot of emotions or had a strong opinion of anything yet."

Darcey shook her head and threw up her hands in frustration. "It's obvious!" she insisted with a roll of her eyes. "Trust me on this one."

Dipton let out an amused chuckle and waved a dismissive hand at her. "If you say so, Darce," he said with a lopsided smile on his face. "Just try not to get your hopes up too much, okay?" he added before turning to me, his eyes still twinkling with amusement. "For the record, Darcey's an engineer, and she's been tinkering with tech for years. Plus, she's a 'Telemechanic'."

"A Telemechanic?" I said, raising an eyebrow. "Never heard of that."

Dipton nodded and put his hands on his hips as he glanced at Fii and then back to me. "Yes, Darcey can manipulate machines in some ways," he explained. "Like make them move or sometimes even influence them mentally."

Darcey scoffed as she rolled her eyes and waved him off again. "Oh, whatever," she said, feigning exasperation as she rolled her eyes. "You're just jealous because you can't do half the stuff I can."

Dipton snorted with laughter. "Sure," he said with a chuckle. "Anyway," he continued as he wiped tears from his eyes and calmed himself down, "you'll just have to meet the rest of our merry band and see for yourself." He turned to Darcey and said, "Hey, Darcey?"

"Yeah?" she replied without turning around to look at him.

"Could you go get everyone else?" he asked before turning to me again. "They should be in their rooms."

Darcey let out an annoyed sigh as she spun around to face him. "Yeah, alright," she said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes as she walked past Dipton up the staircase to the upper level. "I'll go get them."